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Climbing Broccoli 9-Jan-2018 At 2:42:20 PM Wendy

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On 8-Jan-2018 One Day Hero wrote:

>
>>I'm not rich, but i'm sort of notorious. Does that count? Seriously,
>I
>>stayed in a squat in argentiere for 3 seasons 2005-7. Paid normal camping
>>fees in 2008. Caught a few cable cars at about 20euro each, but you can
>>walk if you really want. stayed in alpine huts for a mere 6 euro a night,
>>but you could suffer through camping in the snow if you really want.
>
>So....you recommend people go to Cham, sleep in a squat, catch 20euro
>cable cars, and climb amazing routes? Cause our friends who were there
>last summer had an expensiver experience, which involved a lot of standing
>in queues for routes.
>

Secret number one to Cham. Don't go to do the Rebuffet or cosmiques arete. There'll always be queues. Plus the teleferique up there is the most expensive in the whole valley. And don't stay in the cosmiques refuge, it's private and costs ++++.

And surely I don't need say it, but don't climb Mt Blanc.

Cheap, less crowded options - camp on the Plan. Lovely spot and you could even walk up there if you were that stingy. Do awesome routes on the Blatiere or the Peigne. only thing that had queues was the long old school thing up behind l'M whose name I've forgotton and whose climbing was some of the worst I did in 3 seasons anyway.

Catch the train to montenvers and walk up to the Envers. Cheapskates could again walk all the way from the bottom. Either camp or pay bed fee (SFA for austrian alpine club members) and bring your own food. Shitloads of awesome routes. Never queued there, even on the one weekend I was there when there were 60 people in the refuge.